1. MicroSD card
1. Headphone Jack
1. Removable battery
If it was possible in 2014 and the days of Micro USB, it's possible today.
[1] https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s5_active-6356.php
Current iPhones are IP68 rated, which is markedly superior.
Does anyone care that iPhone is IP68 instead of IP67?
Does anything stop you drom making a phone with a headphone jack and microSD card that will survive submersion to the depth of 2 miles?
My MacBook battery is replaceable. I don’t want removable as I don’t ever swap batteries.
These aren’t losses. They are whimpers from people who are living through rose tinted glasses.
Is your MacBook battery easily replaceable or is glued in making it a danger to be removed by an amateur at home? And even if you never swap batteries how does having it removable effect you really?
Batteries: I extended the life of my 2010 MacBook by swapping the battery and it was very easy. Apple is going to come out with kits for amateurs to do part changes themselves for the iPhone, where that part change will be harder (broken screen swap) than swapping out a MB battery.
2010 MBP were far more repairable than the modern stuff. After that Apple started gluing down the batteries which required prying to remove.
Bluetooth is absolutely atrocious, every 2-way call over bluetooth is sampled down to absolute garbage because the meager bandwidth is halved and the codec in prehistoric
I’ve got a 14” MBP. It has pull tags and is easy to replace. I’d still take it in apple store to get it replaced.
Pull tabs are only slightly better. If the tabs break you're just back to prying off adhesive and the tabs do break if you're not careful.
And what are you going to do in 7 years when you're trying to get it working as a laptop for your kid or something and Apple tells you they no longer service that model as it's "vintage"?
I've also replaced several batteries in Apple products, even without pull tabs and it's not difficult.
Regarding replacements, my mother's 6s just got a second new battery last month and it's still supported after 7 years.
I'm glad you're currently well to do and can afford all new shit for your kids. Some people can't and sometimes a repair is the only option. Is it worth making repair considerably harder for a few extra mm of thinness and less than a hundred grams of weight? I'd argue no. Compare the repair of a 2010 MBP with one from 2016 and then tell me the 2016 one is easy.
Headsets with mics on them did exist before bluetooth, and so did headsets with control buttons (source: my early-2000s portable mp3 player). The only thing bluetooth added to the mix is cross-device compatibility.
- Notebooks would become thicker and clunkier. They don't want that.
- Same for cellphones, added with things like less waterproof/humid resistance.
With that said - many of the most vocal "tech enthusiasts" consume a lot. These are the people that are passionate about consumer electronics, and will purchase new phones/laptops/TVs/etc. every 1-2 years. So I'm not really sure why they'd care too much about phones etc. potentially not living their maximum lifespan.
I’ve replaced several iPhone batteries myself - I have the necessary tools, including the opening tool. Outside of it being a fiddly job involving miniature connectors, I find that the replacement batteries don’t last as long as the OEM ones, even when bought from iFixit.
Also, the battery is glued to the back shell, and the release tapes usually break, because the hot rice bag isn’t as hot as the heated vacuum stage that Apple uses. Then you have to work a monofilament under the battery, which is an annoying three hand job, if you don’t have the stage.
Apple gets $69 to replace the battery. Given the above, that’s reasonable. But, the nearest service is an hour away. The real decision is the personal time and delay to get to and from the service place (twice, or wait around for a couple of hours) vs spend an hour to do it myself.
If the battery was OEM and came out easily, I’d do it myself, every time.
On the other hand, it did have a plastic cap on the micro USB port which you had to open every time in order to charge it. I'm not sure if this was a limitation of micro USB (or whatever the Samsung-specific extension next to it was) - modern phones with open USB C ports seem to have no problem being waterproof.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-USB-3-0-Cable-Male/dp/B0...